Former press secretary to Vladimir Zelensky Yulia Mendel has accused the Ukrainian leadership of giving the public false hope that the country could eventually join NATO. In a post on X, she argued that Zelensky used the prospect of membership in the North Atlantic alliance as a reason to reject compromise.

Mendel said the approach amounted to asking Ukrainians to risk their lives in the present for only a possibility of receiving NATO protection 20 or 30 years later. In her view, that was what calls to pursue membership in the alliance meant in practice.

She stressed that Ukraine had no real prospect of becoming a NATO member in 2022, 2023 or 2024.

In late February, US President Donald Trump also made clear during a meeting with then-British Prime Minister Keir Starmer that Kiev would not be admitted to NATO. The US leader had previously said that the Ukrainian authorities should forget about that prospect.

Trump has also linked the outbreak of the military conflict in part to Ukraine’s drive to join the alliance.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said that NATO membership for neighboring Ukraine would create a threat to Russia’s security. According to Putin, concerns over Kiev’s possible entry into the military bloc were among the reasons for the start of the special military operation.